Melissa, now aged 27, attended Bodalla primary school from kinder to year six and then attended Narooma high school where she completed her HSC in year 12. She moved to Canberra to further her studies in 2004. There she attended the Canberra Institute of Technology where she completed Advanced Diploma's in both Fashion Design and Graphic design. After working in a Graphic Design studio for two years, she decided her passion was more in fitness. This led to a career change.

Melissa trained in Karate while she was growing up, but left when she sustained a severe ligament injury to her ankle. While she was living in Canberra, Melissa joined a gym to try and lose some weight and it was there that she started training in Muay Thai. Muay Thai is a combat sport from the Muay martial arts of Thailand that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques. This form of martial arts is known as "the art of eight limbs" because it is characterized by the combined use of fists, elbows, knees, shins and feet.

Melissa has been training in Muay Thai now for four years during which time she has five fights and five wins with one of the wins via TKO (Technical Knock Out). She has fought in Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney and the Gold Coast. Her fight weight is anywhere between 62 and 65kgs and when she fights in Malaysia she will be competing in the Welter weight category (63.5kg to 67kg) under IFMA rules.

Melissa is now a staff member of Les Mills Asia Pacific team in Deakin where she has worked for over two years as the Educator Coordinator.